COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The United States has asked Sri Lanka to prosecute attackers who threw rocks at a mosque in the capital and to work to end religious-based violence.

Police imposed a curfew in a part of Colombo over the weekend to prevent possible religious clashes after a Buddhist mob hurled stones and vandalized a mosque Saturday night, injuring at least seven worshippers.

A U.S. embassy statement said “this incident is particularly troubling in light of a large number of recent attacks against the Muslim community.”

The attack comes amid a growing anti-Muslim campaign by Buddhist nationalist groups who consider Muslims a threat to the political and economic well-being of the ethnic-Sinhalese Buddhist majority. Muslims make up 9 percent of the island nation’s 20 million population.